


Through the Woods

by AsphorFell



Series: Luck Runs Out [1]
Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - No Eden's Gate Cult, Bedtime Stories, Gen, Possibly Middle Ages, Seeds are hinted but not in the story, Time not specified
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 23:16:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17569793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsphorFell/pseuds/AsphorFell
Summary: Nick Rye tells his daughter a bedtime story, and gives her a warning.





	Through the Woods

**Author's Note:**

> This began as an AU idea I had and submitted to YandereDad over on Tumblr- but once I put the thought down it didn't leave. So now it's a thing.
> 
> Title is a reference to the graphic novel Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, as is a line that Nick says,
> 
> "...she got lucky once..."
> 
> It was in reference to a chilly line at the end of the book, when a version of little red riding hood, upon arriving safely home, comments to herself, safe in bed "What a fine night, what a fine walk, I knew the wolf wouldn't find me." 
> 
> But the wolf, at the window, says to her, "you must travel through the woods, again and again, and be lucky enough to avoid the wolf every time. But the wolf needs to be lucky just once."
> 
> It's a great line, and a great book, really creepy and mysterious.

When Carmina is very young, her Daddy tucks her in bed and bolts the shutters on her windows- “to keep out the dark.” He’d explained once, as he enshrouded them in the dark. Mommy lights a candle, and Carmina snuggles into her bed, watching them move around and lock doors and put down salt.

There are so many rules in Hope, rules that Carmina has grown up with, rules that she knows are etched into her bones; you don’t dawdle in the twilight, when you hear whispers from the woods you walk away but never put your back to it, there are so many rules and she knows them all and she is oh so curious, this little girl.

“Why do you do all that?” She asks once, and Daddy says, ‘I’ll tell you at bedtime, princess,’. So, she waits until bedtime, and looks up eagerly with her mother’s dark eyes, and Daddy starts talking.

Daddy tells her a story, and at first she isn’t happy that he broke his promise, then she realizes this is the answer.

“I had a friend, years ago,” he tells, rubbing her back and watching the candle flame flicker. “She was a lot like you, Mina- she was brave, and she was smart, and she didn’t like rules.” And Carmina giggles and her Daddy grins, but she knows he doesn’t mean it bad. “Her name was Rook.”

“Like the bird?” She asked, trying to stay awake. Outside, the wind was howling against their home, and she shivered.

“Just like the bird.” He agrees, “she could climb the tallest trees and she picked the ripest fruit there, and she would toss it back down to me and we’d eat until we got sick.” He chuckles at the memory, “Me and her and Sharky and Hurk- we brought out the best of each other.”

Now Carmina is confused; she knows Sharky and Hurk, but she’d never met Rook, had never heard mention of her. If Rook was such a good friend, where was she now?

“Like I said, Rook was very brave. And, like everyone else, she locked her windows and shuttered them, and salted the doors. She followed the rules.” Daddy gives her a ‘look’ and she squirms. “But she was curious too, baby, and one night…” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “One night she got up and opened the window.” Carmina gasps in shock, in horror, in the way only a child can be. For all that she wanted to know _why_ her family and everyone that she knew practiced these rules, she wasn’t a naughty enough girl to break a rule so dangerous.

But Daddy nods at her, sensing it. “Rook looked outside, and at first, she didn’t see anything, she, ah, she told me later that it was so bright outside, it was almost daylight. The moon lit up the sky.” His smile is strained, and he looks sick. “She didn’t understand, didn’t…didn’t see.” His voice breaks, and Carmina knows that this story won’t have a happy ending.

Daddy tells her that she never locked her windows again, that because she got lucky once, she continued to press that luck. Every full moon she left her windows open, and even Daddy began to think maybe there really wasn’t anything out there anymore, if there ever was. Until a little before Carmina was born.

One night Rook looked out her window, and she saw light out in the trees. And curious, brave Rook, she left her house and she followed those lights, wanting desperately to know what was out there.

“But Daddy how do you know?” Carmina asks, watching her father come back to himself and look at her funny.

“Rook told me. The next morning, she told me that she’d seen something out there. And she wanted to know who it was.” He explains, looking a little abashed at having missed such an important part of the story. But it was okay, because the story was important too, important to tell and important to Daddy, so it had to be told.

Nick had been interested too, but not enough to join her on the next full moon to find out what happened out in the woods.

“And that was the last time that I saw her, princess.” He says quietly, and all of a sudden the summer night has never felt so cold, and Carmina just stares at him.

“But-but what happened?” She asks desperately, and Daddy only shakes his head.

“I don’t know. We looked. In the forest, the next morning, when we saw the open door. But…all we found was Boomer, sitting at the treeline.” And that makes goosebumps raise on Carmina’s arms.

Boomer? Boomer was Rook’s?

Boomer, the dog that waited every day at the edge of the woods…he was waiting for Rook?

Daddy kisses her good night and reminds her to keep the window locked, and to not look outside, no matter what she might hear out there.

That night Carmina dreamt of a beautiful figure emerging in the dark to the overjoyed barking of a relieved, faithful hound, music of the most thrilling kind playing on the notes of the dew in the grass.

There was frost on the window in the morning, when Carmina opened it, and clear as day, on her windowpane was a hand print.

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment and tell me what you thought!


End file.
